Egyptian protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in Cairo Friday against a constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Morsi. / Petr David Josek AP

by By Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

by By Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO - Protesters have taken to the streets for weeks, waving flags, shouting chants, and seeking to sway the future of the nation.

But the spiraling clash between rival political camps extends far beyond rallies that both challenge - and support - President Mohamed Morsi's rule, and could spark further instability as the country prepares to vote Saturday on a new constitution.

Last week the nation's prosecutor general, appointed by Morsi, ordered investigations into claims that opposition leaders including Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, former minister of foreign affairs Amr Moussa, and leftist leader Hamdeen Sabahi are conspiring to overthrow the government.

Some question the prosecutor general's impartiality and suspect he may work to implement a Morsi agenda. But Dina Zakaria, a representative of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said the investigation has nothing to do with the opposition to the president.

"No one is going to be punished if there is no evidence," Zakaria said.

While it may not lead to prosecution, the inquiry indicates an explicit threat and is "part of a public disinformation campaign to try to tarnish opposition leaders as being part of conspiracies to topple the government," said Michael Wahid Hanna of the Century Foundation, a think tank in New York.

"At the very least this fits that purpose," he said, adding that the investigation fits the narrative of the Muslim Brotherhood and its camp.

In a statement about violent clashes that killed six protesters outside the presidential palace last week, the Brotherhood offered its condolences to families of those "assassinated by the treacherous hands of hooligans and terrorists collaborating in a vicious plot to overthrow the legitimate regime, override popular will and abort the revolution."

The Brotherhood also refers to a "foreign plot," and speaks of some members of the opposition as being dangerous loyalists of Hosni Mubarak's regime.

"Remnants of the former regime seek to overthrow the legitimate regime by spreading chaos and mayhem and vandalism," said vice-chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat Al-Shater, at a recent press conference, according to the group's website.

The accusatory narrative is not new to Egypt - it echoes language used by Mubarak's regime before he was ousted in February 2011, and was carried over by the current leadership over the past months. But it is escalating in light of political crisis.

"It's not as if these accusations started last week," said Shadi Hamid, director of research for the Brookings Doha Center. "They've been around for a long time, and the Egyptian political scene has been polarized for a long time."

"This is an intensification of what has already been happening," he added.

Egypt is embroiled in a political fight over the future of freedoms and the content of what may become the nation's new constitution. The conflict escalated in late November when Morsi issued a decree that gave him sweeping powers, sidelined the judiciary, and allowed for a final draft constitution to be approved despite challenges to the committee that wrote the document.

Opponents viewed the decree - which has since been rescinded - as a power grab, while Morsi and his camp framed it as necessary for democracy and stability. Despite protests against the draft, Egyptians will vote on the constitution Saturday.

Use of inflammatory claims that have burgeoned in recent weeks and are short of any evidence "doesn't bode well for the political process, for bridging divides and overcoming bitter polarization," Hanna said.

And the opposition makes its own accusations.

"Many liberals would accuse, for example, the Muslim Brotherhood of getting support from Qatar, of being funded from the outside world," said political analyst Mazen Hassan, in Cairo. "Left-wing people of the liberal camp would say [the Brotherhood] are implementing an American agenda, even an Israeli Zionist one. They are accusing the other of being foreign agents."

"But of course it's the Islamists who rely on these accusations," Hassan said. And such allegations are not as frequent from the opposition, he added.

Liberals express outrage toward the United States for allegedly backing Morsi and the Brotherhood, and say the Islamist group uses religion to manipulate under-educated Egyptians into following the Brotherhood's decisions. Some also accuse the Brotherhood of having militias who were involved in deadly clashes last week.

Alleged Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters took almost 50 anti-Morsi protesters to a makeshift detention center at Heliopolis' presidential palace gate, where they were beaten and otherwise mistreated, Human Rights Watch said.

The Brotherhood's camp claims its supporters were attacked by hired thugs.

Mohamed El Mekkawi, a member of the foreign relations committee of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said if the Brotherhood had militias it could defend against recent attacks on party offices taking place across the country.

"How come, if we have militias, we could not defend ourselves?" El Mekkawi asked. "It's unacceptable speech. This is not democracy."

"I said, 'This is your opinion,' and I didn't answer him on air, but I went to the court," Mansour said.

She, too, had her own beliefs about how the rival political camp operates in a nation where a large portion of the population is illiterate. "These people are so naïve, so you can play with their minds using religion," Mansour said, noting what she claims is a Brotherhood tactic to get people to turn against the opposition.

But in light of rival claims and accusations, the Brotherhood's El Mekkawi said what matters is the upcoming vote on the final draft constitution.

"In the end the citizens know everything and we should wait to see what [the people] are going to choose," he said.

Still, Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman of the National Salvation Front - the main coalition of opposition parties - said there are dangers resulting from "speech of hate" that involves incitement against media figures and accusations that Morsi's opponents are infidels and foreign agents: He has received a number of anonymous death threats from people he believes may be "victims" of incitement, angrily swayed by allegations.

"I'm sad more than scared," Dawoud said. "I don't think it's serious, but it makes me sad that my country is heading in a direction whereby if I disagree with you, you come and tell me, 'I'll kill you.' "